_Sed nec variare_. _But_ (i.e. on the other hand) _they are not even_ (for _nec_ in this sense see Ritter in loc.) _taught to vary their curves_ (i.e. as the antithesis shows, to bend now towards the right and now towards the left in their gyrations), _but they drive them straight forward or by a constant bend towards the right in so connected a circle_ (i.e. a complete ring), _that no one is behind_ (for the obvious reason, that there is neither beginning nor end to such a ring). Such is on the whole the most satisfactory explanation of this difficult passage, which we can give after a careful examination. A different version was given in the first edition. It refers not to battle, but to equestrian exercises, cf. Gerlach, as cited by Or. in loc. _Aestimanti_. Greek idiom. Elliptical dative, nearly equivalent to the abl. abs. (nobis aestimantibus), and called by some the dat. abs. In A. II. the ellipsis is supplied by _credibile est_. Cf. Bötticher's Lex. Tac. sub _Dativus_. _Eoque mixti. Eo_, causal particle==for that reason. Caesar adopted this arrangement in the battle of Pharsalia. B.C. 3, 84. The Greeks also had [Greek: pezoi amippoi]. Xen. Hellen. 7, 5. _Centeni_. A hundred is a favorite number with the Germans and their descendants. Witness the hundred _pagi_ of the Suevi (Caes. B.G. 4, 1), and of the Semnones (G. 39), the _cantons_ of Switzerland, and the _hundreds_ of our Saxon ancestors in England. The _centeni_ here are a military division. In like manner, Caesar (B.G. 4, 1) speaks of a _thousand_ men drafted annually from each _pagus_ of the Suevi, for military service abroad. _Idque ipsum_. Predicate nominative after a verb of calling, H. 362, 2. 2; Z. 394. The division was called a _hundred_, and each man in it a _hundreder_; and such was the estimation in which this service was held, that to be a hundreder, became an honorable distinction, _nomen et honor_==honorificum nomen. _Cuneos_. A body of men arranged in the form of a wedge, i.e. narrow in front and widening towards the rear; hence peculiarly adapted to break the lines of the enemy. _Consilii quam formidinis_. Supply _magis_. The conciseness of T. leads him often to omit one of two correlative particles, cf. note on _minime_, 4. _Referunt. Carry into the rear_, and so secure them for burial. _Etiam in dubiis proeliis_. Even while the battle remains undecided. Gün. _Finierunt_. In a present or aorist sense, as often in T. So _prohibuerunt_, § 10; _placuit_ and _displicuit_, 11. cf. Lex. Tac. Böt.